On town planning, climate, the Cities of Stockholm, Sweden and Pune, India

4/15/2010

Indian lions and Swedish wolves

Yesterday the Swedish daily newspaper Svenska Dagbladet writes about Swedish wolf population. There are as many wolf pairs that last year despite the wolf hunt, 27 couples. The figures are as yet uncertain, as most the 27 couples gave birth to pups last year or at least 20. Last year 22 couples did multiply. It is also unclear as yet whether there are more wolves than the 210 that the government has determined should be the limit in Sweden. As I have previously stated, it is not a high goal in view of Sweden's sparse population and large surface area. With 210 wolves in Sweden, we have 0.5 wolves per 1,000 square kilometres. Many European countries have 10-15 wolves per 1 000 square kilometres; with this wolf density, we would have 4,000-6,000 wolves in Sweden. In an international perspective, Swedish ceiling of 210 wolves is quite modest. Many other countries also take on responsibility for preserving threatened species. Take for example India, which is one of the world's most densely populated countries. There are a number of big cats which are all endangered, tigers, lions and leopards.

Asiatic lion
Many believe that there are lions only in Africa. But there are 359 Asiatic lions in the wild in Gir forest, a national park in the Indian state of Gujarat. At least that many existed there in 2005. The park is only 1.412 km². It is a small remaining remnant of a tribe that once existed throughout western Asia, and even in Greece, where the extinct around AD 80-100. They were in the Caucasus, Azerbaijan in the current until the year AD 1000. In the late 1800’s lions disappeared from Turkey. The last time lions were seen in Iran was in 1941.

Gir Forest
The Asiatic lion is a separate species, slightly smaller than the African. The strain suffered heavily by inbreeding, the individuals are almost equally closely related to one another as identical twins, but despite this seemingly healthy. The trunk is nearly twice that of the Swedish wolf population, in an area similar to Östhammar municipality in East Sweden. Lion strain decreased slowly until the 1800s when it decreased rapidly because of hunting with firearms. Lion hunting was a favourite amusement among British colonialists and Indian princes. The growing Indian population has turned most of the remainder lived in the jungle for farmland. They are still hunted illegally by peasants who live nearby. A second sanctuary for the Asiatic lion has been proposed in Palpur-Kuno in Madhya Pradesh, where they were prior to 1873 when they were eradicated.

Area of Asiatic linon compared to African lion
The Bengal tiger in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. It is the most frequent tiger species with approximately 2,100 wild animals, of which 1,411 in India, 450 in Bangladesh, 150 in Nepal and 100 in Bhutan. India has around two-thirds of the world's wild tigers tiger reserves in 37 in 17 Indian states. Of the eight species were a hundred years ago, three extinct and only ten percent of the population remains. As late as 2003 there were 3,600 animals. In 2006 all 26 tigers were killed in Sariska Tiger Reserve. Last year reported gone all the tigers in Panna Tiger Reserve. Indian government has now decided to create eight new reserves. But still hunted tigers illegally, around 50-100 tigers are killed each year.

Bengal tiger
India has 1.2 billion people and a population density of 360 inhabitants per square kilometer, compared to Sweden's 23. India is 15 times denser. The Indian challenge is certainly much tougher than Sweden's goal of 210 wolves.